Living Planet profile: Steven Price on the International Year of the Forest

Name: Steven Price
Title: Senior Director, Conservation Science and Practice
Living Planet (LP): In Canada, what have been WWF’s key accomplishments in protecting forests?
 
Steven Price (SP): WWF has made two fundamental contributions to conserving forests in Canada.  First, our Endangered Spaces Campaign sparked a doubling in one decade of Canada’s total area under protection, to a total of some 80 million hectares, about half of them forested.  In a country that is 50 per cent woodlands, that’s a lot of forest habitat protected, for woodland caribou, migratory birds, and extensive wetland plant communities, as well as benefits like clean water secured for local communities and First Nations.
Second, we helped found and expand the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in Canada, so that by 2011, about one-third of Canada’s managed forest area was certified to FSC’s high environmental, social and economic standards, representing an area of 43 million hectares, about the size of California!  FSC gives consumers a greener choice in wood, paper and other forest-derived products, driving further improvements in sustainability.
LP: You played a key role in the creation of the FSC certification system. Eighteen years later, are you satisfied with what it has accomplished to date?
SP: It’s outstanding that FSC has achieved its central purpose, which was to assemble environmentalists, forest industry representatives, labour and First Nations to establish better forest management standards, rewarding companies with lower-impact logging. Better managed forests means more habitat left for wildlife, more protected areas identified, better buffers along rivers and streams, and so forth.  But FSC has had another unintended consequence – it has been a trail-blazer, allowing other certification systems to establish, like the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for more sustainably harvested seafood.
LP: Why did we choose to go the route of certification?
SP: During the 1990s, boycotts of forest products were a real threat to the forest industry.  Some companies were more progressive about forest management and were looking for ways to demonstrate their commitment to lowering their impact. This left a broad niche open for WWF to work with companies willing to manage their forests more sensitively and willing to submit to external audits verify their progress. Certification under FSC allowed for products from better managed forests to earn the FSC logo on the store shelf.
 
LP: Do you feel it is possible to meet the world’s demand for timber, pulp and paper while protecting forests for wildlife?
SP: It is not possible to meet an unlimited demand, while still sustaining wildlife and ecological services we get from forests, such as cleaner water.  We all have a responsibility to reduce wasteful uses of paper and wood. At the same time, scientists can help establish harvest limits within which we need to manage our production of renewable forest products.
LP: Globally, what do we need to do in the next 50 years to protect forests?
SP: There are six things we need to do:
a)       Get climate change (a great threat to all biodiversity, including forests) under control, by reducing greenhouse gases from fossil fuels to zero emissions.
b)      Adapt to the climate change that already is and will happen, especially by encouraging strong scientific research into challenges and opportunities.
c)       Complete a strong, global network of protected areas for all forest types – tropical, temperate and boreal – that covers a complete array of forest biodiversity.
d)      Improve the sustainability of harvests in non-protected areas, using tools such as FSC certification.
e)      Control illegal wildlife trade from forests, and ensure legal harvests are sustainable.
f)        Study and appreciate the enormous but hidden economic value of ecological services and benefits that arise for society from forests.